Authorities say Montclair doctor ran oxycodone drug-dealing scheme

The doctor from Montclair trudged into the courtroom with the other handcuffed defendants in Newark federal court this afternoon. Looking beat-tired, his face stricken with anxiety at times, he was arrested early in the morning and stood accused of being the ringleader of 12 people who conspired to deal thousands of pills containing oxycodone — a prescription-only drug that a prosecutor called the "new drug of choice" for New Jersey teenagers.

Federal authorities say the drug is a highly addictive analgesic — loaded with twice the potency of morphine — that’s used medically to treat chronic pain.

Michael Durante, a 56-year-old doctor of internal medicine who practices in Nutley, faces allegations that he regularly wrote illegal pill prescriptions and pocketed thousands of dollars for it, all while conspiring with other defendants, including several people who saw him as regular patients.

Looking disheveled in a wrinkled long-sleeve shirt, Durante listened as U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shipp ordered that he could only be released into the custody of his brother, Mark, an oral surgeon, and only on a $1 million bond secured by two homes he owns. Durante met the conditions.

The other defendants named in the complaint who appeared in court today were each released on $100,000 unsecured bonds.

Prosecutor Anthony J. Mahajan’s voice boomed across the courtroom as he argued the judge should hit Durante with a high-amount, secured bond, and as he argued — successfully — that the court should bar Durante from practicing medicine until the charge against him is resolved.

"There’s a reason Dr. Durante is listed first on the complaint," Mahajan said. "He was at the top of the food chain and was responsible for the chain reaction down the line."

He continued: "The oxycodone epidemic in New Jersey is the new drug of choice. Our kids here are taking it and they’re taking it in epidemic proportions. It can only come into the distribution channel in one way, and that’s through doctors like this."

When federal agents searched Durante’s home today, they found a locked safe filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, Mahajan added.

In the criminal complaint, federal authorities said Durante at one point wrote prescriptions for more than 1,000 pills in just 10 days, and authorities alleged that some of his patients dealt the drug on the street for large profits.

The complaint also said one of the co-conspirators, Lawrence Gebo, a 62-year-old retired Newark police officer, was plotting to get Durante a "gold" Fraternal Order of the Police card as a reward for writing the prescriptions. The cards are normally reserved for the immediate family members of officers.

The conspiracy to distribute oxycodone started in January 2010, authorities alleged. If convicted on the charge, each of the 12 defendants face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.